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An immigrant woman takes the lead of United Farm Workers after former president steps down

Arturo Rodríguez became president of the United Farm Workers after his father-in-law, farmworker leader César Chávez, died unexpectedly in 1993. Twenty-five years later, he is stepping down and board member Teresa Romero is becoming the union's third president and the first immigrant woman to lead a national union in the United States.

Romero was born in Mexico City and grew up in Guadalajara. When she migrated to the U.S. in the early 1980s, she only spoke Spanish. She managed a construction company and a law firm that helped workers with immigration and workers compensation claims before joining the farmworker union nine years ago. She has never worked in the fields, but she said her background helps her connect with the nation's farmworkers.

"I understand what workers are going through," she said. "I understand how difficult it is. I understand that they don't speak the language. I know how it affects our everyday life."

Romero is taking the reins of the organization at a time when the union wields influence in some agricultural fields in California, Oregon and Washington and boasts significant clout in the California legislature. But she will also face the challenge of leading an organization that advocates for immigrant workers and immigration reform, amid a political climate that's proven harsh for both unions and immigrants.

Her union will also need to ensure its workers remain relevant, as growers turn to mechanization as a way to compete with cheaper farming operations in Mexico and Central America. And growers have also increasingly relied on temporary guest workers to combat a national labor shortage. Farmworkers who use the temporary visas, called H-2A, typically do not end up joining a union.

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A farmworker who worked in a fig tree farm shows how her skin had a reaction to the sap of the tree.(Photo: J. Omar Ornelas/ The Desert Sun)

She will lead a union whose membership peaked at some 70,000 people around 1970; last year, it claimed about 10,000 members, just a fraction of the country's estimated one to two million farmworkers. The decline in membership mirrors national trends: Across the country, just over 10 percent of workers in the county were members of unions in 2017, down from about 20 percent in 1983, according to the Pew Research Center.

UFW leaders, however, say membership is just one indication of the organization's health. They point to the union's other efforts aimed at improving the lives of farmworkers, including a separate legal organization, the UFW Foundation, that they say provided immigration and worker trainings to nearly 90,000 farmworkers in California and Arizona last year.

Romero is also inheriting an organization with a complicated legacy, said Mark Arax, a reporter and author who has written about the Central Valley for decades. Chávez, Dolores Huerta and others founded the union in 1962 to fight for improved pay and working conditions. Chávez, a charismatic, prophet-like leader who inspired a national grape boycott, fasted for weeks to bring attention to these issues and participated in long marches, "left a movement more than a union," Arax said.

Rodríguez, meanwhile, elevated and connected the voices of farmworkers, in the halls of Sacramento and across the airwaves through the farmworker movement's radio stations, Arax said. He also held accountable growers who violated fair wage and working conditions, he said.

Teresa Romero, second from right, marches with United Farm Worker supporters.(Photo: Courtesy of the United Farm Workers)

"You don't have to be a growing, robust union, signing up more and more workers, to remain a powerful voice for those workers," Arax said. "Arturo didn't have that cult of personality, so he was able to get deep into the organizing, in a way that César might not have been able to do."

Under Rodríguez’s leadership, farmworker wages have risen to an average of $13.18 an hour, according to federal data — more than $2 above the state minimum wage. The union also sponsored a state law that, starting in 2019, guarantees California farmworkers will be paid overtime after working more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.

Rodríguez also led the fight for stricter workplace protections for farmworkers. In 2005, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced new rules requiring water and shade for people who feel symptoms of heatstroke while working. They were the first significant regulations intended to protect California farmworkers, construction workers and landscapers from heat-related illness and death. Gov. Jerry Brown strengthened those rules in 2015.

Rodríguez also helped win contracts for people working in berry, mushroom and tomato fields. Under a contract signed in June, D’Arrigo Brothers Company, a large vegetable producer based in Salinas, on California's Central Coast, pledged to completely cover the cost of family medical, dental and vision insurance for about 1,500 workers.

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United Farm Workers of America president, Arturo S. Rodriguez, in his office with a photo of Cesar Chavez behind him on Wednesday, February 7, 2018 in Keene, California. (Photo: Richard Lui/The Desert Sun)

John D'Arrigo, president of D'Arrigo Brothers, said California growers have, at times in the past, had a fraught relationship with the farmworker union. But this year, he said, he collaborated with Rodríguez to develop a generous wage and benefit package, with the goal of attracting and retaining workers amid a nationwide farm labor shortage. The shortage has intensified as existing farmworkers age and border security grows tighter, making it harder for younger immigrant workers to replace them.

"It's a new era of collaboration between myself and the union," D'Arrigo said. "We're all concerned about economics — the workers' economics, the union's economics, my economics. We're working together better than ever for that common goal of remaining relevant and viable."

But there's one goal Rodríguez failed to achieve during his tenure as union president: The passage of immigration reform. In 2013, the union negotiated with national grower groups to craft an immigration bill, which would have included a provision allowing workers to earn permanent legal status by continuing to work in the fields. The legislation passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House of Representatives.

A farmworker trims grape vines in a vineyard in Clarksburg, Calif.(Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Talks of immigration reform ground to a halt again this year, after a year and a half of chaotic immigration policies and directives from the Trump Administration. President Trump attempted to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2017, only to be rebuked by the courts. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security implemented a zero-tolerance policy that led to the separation of migrant families at the border, spurring a national uproar.

"Obviously, I would have liked to have seen immigration reform," Rodríguez said in an interview Monday. He said he would continue to work on this issue this fall, through the midterm elections in November and after he steps down on Dec. 20, adding, "we're definitely going to elect candidates supportive of immigration reform."

Romero said fighting for immigration legislation would be one of her priorities as UFW president. She recalled meeting a farmworker couple from the Central California city of Oxnard, who said they had discussed the possibility of apprehension and deportation with their three young kids. She said that interaction made her cry — and then made her determined to fight even harder for immigration reform.

"Everything we do here — everything I do here — is for the benefit of farmworkers,” she said. "That's why immigration reform is important."

Arturo Rodriguez, in red shirt, speaks with President Barack Obama.(Photo: Courtesy of the United Farm Workers)

Rebecca Plevin covers immigration for The Desert Sun. Reach her at rebecca.plevin@desertsun.com or 760-218-0021. Follow her on Twitter at @rebeccaplevin.